Movies, Movies, and More Movies

I was "cleaning out" our video camera today and I found a few movies that have not been shown before.


My favorite is one that includes Ryan that I didn't even remember taking. It was taken the day that Ryan came home from Spectrum in March. Since he had to spend his birthday in the hospital he ended up getting a few balloons. Lily and Wyatt had so much fun playing with those balloons together.

Daddy's Birthday Balloons

This is a video from June soon after we moved back into the townhouse. Jumping was something that the kids started learning to do while Ryan and I were at U of M. They aren't great at jumping in this video, but they sure are funny!

Lulu and Boo

Here is a video collection of the last week with the kiddos playing outside. They have enjoyed being outside this summer.

Summer Silliness

The last video is from our trip to the zoo today. It is very short and not very good, but I thought that some of you might enjoy it anyway. We were watching the spider monkeys from up above. If you listen carefully you can hear Lily making monkey noises.

Little Monkeys

Here are some pictures from our time at the zoo. Grandpa Steve came to visit for the weekend, so we thought that the zoo would be a fun treat for the kids. Lily was actually more hesitant at the zoo than Wyatt, which really surprised me. Neither of the kids was as excited about the animals as I thought they would be. Their favorite seemed to be the tiger, but I didn't get any pictures because I was holding Wyatt the whole time.

Wyatt and Lily looking at the lily pads. Lily and Grandpa looking at the llamas.

Lily and Wyatt looking at the spider monkeys.

The brown bear (which they did not like at all) and the apes. All of the animals seemed very lazy today.

The Story of Us

Ryan and I began our journey as husband and wife 5 years ago today. Our journey was cut short, but it was filled with many happy memories and an abundance of blessings. I miss Ryan so much, but I am thankful for the time we had together, for the beautiful children God blessed us with, and for the way Ryan helped me to become a better person.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(We were married at The Evangelical Free Church of Crystal Lake, in Crystal Lake, IL. We went to Maui, Hawaii for our honeymoon. The song playing in the slideshow is from the movie "Love Actually".)

**To hear the slideshow music, scroll to the bottom of the blog and pause the blog music.**

Kids and the New House

I have been so busy keeping everyone updated on Ryan that I have been slacking on pictures and videos of the kids. I really haven't taken too many, but I did have the camera out the other day and we have been taking a lot of video in the last 24 hours.

These are pictures of the kids getting ready to go to bed. It was a bath night so Lily's hair was really curly in the back! Wyatt still doesn't like having his picture taken, but you would think that Lily has a greater dislike of it by the evil eye that I am getting.

Lily and Wyatt LOVE to work on puzzles. Here they are working on different puzzles with Daddy! We are all so glad to have him home. Here is also a video of the kids being silly with Ryan. (I wish that you could actually hear their laughter at this moment...I don't know who is laughing harder: Ryan, Lily or Wyatt.)

This is video of the new townhouse. The set-up is working out so much better for all of us! Ryan is able to do a lot more because everything for him is on one level. The kids are enjoying their playroom, and I love having 2 computers in the house since Ryan is working from home.

God continues to bless us!

Doing the Happy Dance

Here is a fun movie of Lily and Wyatt doing the happy dance. They love to take Ryan's meds and shake them (closely supervised of course). They are adjusting so well to all the different things happening in our lives. God is providing for all of us in amazing ways!

Wyatt and Lily Showing Off

Lily and Wyatt were being silly tonight and I was able to get some of it on video. Normally when they are "showing off" they will not do it for the camera, but tonight they were eating it up. Hope that it makes you smile! (To those of you in Illinois: hope this helps a little.)

A Day of New Activities

We tried out a couple new activities this morning that I thought I would share with you.

Our first activity was sledding. We have several inches of snow here and the temperature is in the 30's so we thought today would be a good day to venture outside. We went over to my sister, April's, to use the hill next to her house. Wyatt and Lily were crazy people, very impatient, as Mommy and Daddy got some things done around the house so we could go. As soon as we got to Aunt April's, Wyatt was off to Charlie's room to play and wanted nothing to do with getting bundled up and going outside. Everyone else (except Daddy and Uncle Steve) was going outside so he did agree to go too. We got outside and Wyatt wanted nothing to do with sledding. He watched Lily and I go down the hill once and started crying when April tried to give him to me for a ride. (He went back inside to find Daddy and Uncle Steve. :)) Lily seemed indifferent to the sledding, we went down twice just the 2 of us and once with Charlie too. Then we did take a round tube down and for that she giggled but then immediately wanted to go inside. We have no pictures of the sledding because Daddy was inside staying warm and Mommy was too busy riding in the sled too.

Our second activity of the day was painting with watercolor paint. I am trying to expand the activities that Lily and Wyatt can do so I bought some watercolors the other day. As you will see in the video and slideshow (to the right of the post) this was a big hit. Thank goodness watercolor paints are washable! :)

Here is a video of the kids playing before lunch. Lily wanted to wear her hat around the house for fun.

More Tubbie Time Fun!

The kids were having a lot of fun in their baths tonight. They were making us laugh and I hope that they make you laugh too.

New Year...New Experiences Video

Merry Christmas!

Here is just some of the video that was taken during our Christmas parties. Hope you enjoy.

New Things

When we were in Illinois this past weekend we got Ryan's step stool that he had as a child. Lily and Wyatt love having it at home. Lily will push it around so she can see in the bathroom mirror. Today I put it in the kitchen and they stood looking out the window together.

Lily and Wyatt also got Halloween bags from Grandma Patty of fun "toddler" treats. It was full of things that the kids had never tried before: Gerber Graduates fruit snacks, fruit bars, and cereal bars; juice boxes, and teddy grahams. They LOVE the treats! Thanks Grandma Patty.

Lily and Wyatt's 1st Jack O Lanterns

Lily and Wyatt's 1st Jack O Lanterns!

Auntie Val carved the pumpkin with the star eyes and I carved the one with the crazy mouth. Ryan was in charge of camera duty and Lily and Wyatt took care of being cute!

Wyatt and Lily experiencing the pumpkin innards for the first time!

I put a table cloth on the floor and Wyatt did NOT like that. He refused to step onto the table cloth so it took him a little while to get into the fun. Lily, of course, was in on the action right away! She was sticking her hand into the pumpkin, carrying around the "gick" and even eating the pumpkin seeds (oops). Wyatt did eventually enjoy putting his hand into the bowl of pumpkin innards and even had fun flinging it around; He too tried eating a pumpkin seed.

Enjoying the finished product.

Wyatt likes to put his fingers into the different facial openings (a little dangerous with lit candles inside). Lily likes figuring out the puzzle of putting the tops back on the pumpkins. Thankfully neither of the kids is afraid of the pumpkins and they enjoy having them lit. The continually go to the kitchen table and point at them. I think Lily would like to carry them around like she does with her little pumpkins. Kids find joy in the simplest things!

Fun Fall Films

Here are some movies of Lily and Wyatt enjoying life. I must admit that I think you will enjoy the last movie the most, but unfortunately there are two less humorous movies in front of it. Please forgive my camera work...I am not very good at filming when I am moving.

The Elephant and The Chicken

In my opinion, the laughter of children is one of the best sounds in the world; especially if you are a mom and it is the laughter of your children. I hope that you enjoy the following video of Lily and Wyatt. I hope that it makes you smile. It is filled with laughter.

The reason for the costumes is probably obvious -- Halloween. We don't plan on taking the kids trick or treating, but there is a Halloween Parade at Ryan's work and we will probably go and see their cousins. We were planning on just having Lily be a Bear's cheerleader and Wyatt be a Bear's football player because we had those outfits in the house. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on Halloween costumes that they were only going to wear for a little while, but Old Navy has them on sale. Besides...we think they are pretty cute!

Amazing

I find myself amazed by my kids daily. They are continually doing new things. It is so fun to watch and see their little faces as they experience something new. Lily and Wyatt laughing together as they find out a new "trick" is one of the best sounds in the world.

Lily has decided that acting out her favorite book is very fun. She has little actions that she does for certain parts of THE GOING TO BED BOOK by Sandra Boynton. She normally does these actions without prompting whether we are reading her the book or she is looking at it herself (she was a little camera shy in the movie).

Wyatt has discovered that if he works together with Lily, he can move the blanket basket around the house. Last night we were able to catch a little bit of this on camera. I hope that you continue to enjoy watching the kids live.

Unedited Life of the Sweeney 4

I was inspired by my friend, Kandy, to try and put a video of our life on the blog. We discovered in trying to tape the kids that they are much more entertained by the camera than by playing for the camera. You will experience some extreme close-ups of the kids, especially Wyatt. The reason for the title should become extremely apparent to you as you watch the video; it is made up of both the good and bad moments of two one year olds. I hope that you enjoy a brief glimpse into our everyday experiences.